


i never know why, i only know who

by michaelsc0fields



Category: DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV)
Genre: F/F, Fix-It
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-15
Updated: 2016-05-15
Packaged: 2018-06-08 15:49:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,999
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6861511
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/michaelsc0fields/pseuds/michaelsc0fields
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"There is a possibility that as Mr Snart's DNA fractured he had the remains of Miss Lance's DNA on him and therefore the time stream keeps drawing them together accidentally as it has not realised the two are separate." </p><p>Fix-It fic for 1x15 'Destiny' inspired by the Impossible Girl storyline from Doctor Who</p>
            </blockquote>





	i never know why, i only know who

**Author's Note:**

> So this is the first fanfic I've written in years and the first to be posted on ao3. This was originally posted on tumblr and no one hated it so let's give it a go here. Hope you enjoy it!
> 
> I don't own Legends of Tomorrow or Doctor Who.

There's a flash and a fleeting stab of burning pain then nothing. 

He is surrounded by darkness. He tries to raise his hand to his head, which is throbbing more than any hangover he has ever suffered because of Mick, but his hand isn't there. His body isn't there. He can feel his body but at the same time he can't feel anything at all, just the strange pain behind his eyes (or where his eyes should be). Is is death? Its certainly lonely. 

A cool breeze rushes past (past what? past him?) and there is a swirling cloud of what appears to be smoke that ebbs and expands. The cloud compresses then bursts and suddenly Leonard's entire life flashes before him.

He sees Lisa falling off her bike when she was six, a young Mick giving him a slap on the back that winded skinny teenage Snart more than he'd care to admit. He sees the view through the chain link fence of iron heights, the familiar streak of lightening zooming past, the widening of his father's eyes as the life faded from them. Then Rip on that rooftop, Stein and Ray bent over a desk together. Kendra pouring coffee into a row of mugs, Jax poking through wires, Mick removing his Chronos helmet. Sara's watery eyes staring into his, a mixture of defeat and hope sparkling through the tears.

Then there's a tug in his gut and he's being pulled forward and suddenly-

He blinks as his eyes adjust to the new light. It's still dark, but not the bottomless pit of blackness he'd just been in; he seems to be in some sort of corridor with muted ceiling lights flickering uselessly. 

Leonard stretches an arm (his body seems to have materialised as he was pulled away from where ever he was) towards the wall, his long fingers brushing against what feels like normal plaster and paint. If this is Heaven, it's pretty mediocre. Ditto for Hell. 

There's a clatter from further away from him and he starts. Cautiously, fingers itching for the gun that isn't hanging at his hip, he takes a step forward, but before he gets any further a whirlwind of bodies comes barrelling around the corner. 

Four men dressed in black taking on a familiar figure in white, coat swirling as she turns and dips and flies at her enemies. 

Leonard's confusion clears within seconds, his wits and reflexes honed from years of changing plans at the last minute, as Sara knocks down one of her attackers and focusses her attention on the next one, all the while batting off advances from the other two. As she moves to take the final strike at one, a second appears from nowhere behind her, drawing a gun and lining it up with the back of her head.

"Sara!" Her name has left his mouth as a growl before he even acknowledges it, already breaking into a run to try knock the man down before he can shoot Sara. 

Before he is more than a few steps further forward, her assassin's instincts have kicked in and she has knocked the man before her down and whirled round to knock the gun off target so the bullet embeds itself in the ceiling, smashing through one of the lights and showering her and her attackers with sparks and raining shards of glass. 

Her head turns in Leonard's direction, but before her eyes can find him he feels a pulling sensation at the small of his back and the darkness settles around him once more. 

-

Sara shoots the empty corridor a fleeting glance, before swiftly taking care of her three attackers, her heart still pounding slightly at the surprise of hearing her name and turning to see a gun pointed between her eyebrows. She sweeps her leg under the feet of the last of Savage's men, watching as he falls back and knocks his head against the wall, crumpling to the floor and remaining still. 

Her hand goes straight to the comm in her ear. "Who shouted for me? What's wrong?" She demanded, marching through the corridor towards the room that Kendra remembers she and Carter had lived in during the 50s. 

There was a short pause over the comms before Rip's voice filtered through. "I don't believe any of us called for you, Ms Lance. Perhaps you misheard?"

Sara paused in the doorway of apartment 15, her eyes flickering back to the pile of unconscious bodies she had left in her wake. She was sure she'd heard someone shout for her, distracting her just in time for her to notice the gun focussed on her from behind. She frowned, her mind reliving the fight from moments ago. A glance either side of her confirmed the corridor was empty other than her defeated enemies. 

"Perhaps." She muttered without commitment, then pushed the thought aside as she entered the old apartment. 

\- 

The memories continue to swirl before Snart. A flash of gold as Firestorm merge in front of him. The first time he shot his precious Cold Gun. His mother sobbing in the corner of their rundown kitchen, Lisa curled against her chest. A set of cards fanned over grey sheets. 

The tug comes again and he jolts forward into- 

An explosion went off a few metres to his right and he swore loudly, stumbling back a few steps as he brought his arms up to shield his face from the sudden heat. In the distance there were more explosions, fires flaring up across the block of old fashioned houses he was stood in front of.

A few houses down a group of men with British accents were shouting as they tried to haul open a set of doors that wouldn't budge. Sirens were wailing through the air as a crush of people charged down the street, children crying as their parents hurried them towards what must have been a bomb shelter. 

Rolling his eyes at his own predictability, Leonard set off for the shelter, getting there before the mob of people could stampede to it and find out that they were trapped outside of it.

"Move!" He snarled to the men struggling with the door, barely waiting for their surprised faces to turn to him and back away. Leonard lifted his foot and brought his boot down heavily against the door. The hinges rattled as it wobbled beneath the force and he shoved his foot into it, putting his full weight into the movement until he door flew open with a cloud of dust. 

"Get in." He growled and the baffled men scurried past him, just in time for the mob of terrified civilians to crowd past him into the shelter, as an alarmingly close bomb dropped, the ground shaking as it exploded. 

"Ray, in here!" He caught a glimpse of white leather whipping past him into the shelter as a familiar voice shouted over the din of the crowd and the chaos around them. 

Snart took a step towards the voice but felt a wrench from behind and found himself staring at nothing once again. 

\- 

Sara grabbed onto Ray's arm and tugged him into the bomb shelter. Rip's theory that Savage had been using the Blitz as a cover to let his minions comb the streets looking for Kendra in her current incarnation hadn't come to fruition and now they were stuck in the middle of London as bombs rained from the sky. 

Huddled in a corner with Ray, waiting for the bombing to stop so they could head back to the Waverider, Sara couldn't shake the feeling of someone's eyes on her as she had rushed into the shelter. She had turned back just as she stepped through the doors, but the crowd had carried her through before she had the chance to spot who had been staring so intently at her. Tuning back into Ray's babble about the mechanics of the German bombs, she shook the feeling off and settled in for a long night ahead.

\- 

The pattern continued. Snart floated along in the blackness, a montage of his life playing before him before he was sucked to God knows where and God knows when, always arriving a split second before the trouble started. Just in time to save her. 

He was losing track of how many times he'd been pulled from his highlights reel and he was starting to get pissed off. Always there at the last second, creating the distraction, enabling the escape, and then stuck back here as a never ending movie of moments gone by ticked on. No explanation. No thank you. He had sacrificed himself once, and now his entire existence was rescuing the team, rescuing Sara? No matter how heroic his final act, he hadn't signed on to be a guardian angel. 

This anger simmered through his veins as he materialised in a futuristic warehouse, slinking back into the shadows as his team fought against what appeared to be an army, sharply dressed in matching grey uniforms, their every movement precise and aimed to perfection. 

He saw Sara battling an unfair number; seven on one, a challenge even for her with all her ancient training. His fingers itched with the urge to go for the gun that still eluded him where ever he appeared, to run forward and take some of the burden from him. But the frustration over his new career as a saviour burned deeper.

He stood stock still and watched. Watched her take down two soldiers to only gain three more. Watched as one drew a knife. Watched as it plunged into her side. Watched as she screamed with the shock and the pain, faltering for only a moment before some sort of fight mode kicked into gear, anger smouldering in her eyes and every move as she messily but tactfully took out each of her opponents with a carnal rage.

Watched as she stood uneasily, a hand pressed to the wound at her side. Watched as she lifted her hand, palm stained red. Watched as she fell, Kendra swooping in just in time to catch her as Rip shouted to get her to the med bay.

Then watched nothing as he was sucked back into the darkness, the red of her blood painted behind his eyes.

-

Sara's eyes rolled back into her head as Kendra flung them both into the med bay, Rip and Ray following close behind to hook up the various machines she needed, barking orders to Gideon as the worked. Kendra set her down on the cot, smoothing the Canary's hair from her feverish forehead as she panted. Whatever she'd been stabbed with seemed to be coated with some sort of poison, as Sara struggled to stay awake.

Kendra cut away the top of Sara's suit to allow Gideon access to scan the wound for foreign toxins, grabbing Sara's falling hand once she was done.

"You're okay," she murmured, trying to keep her own panic under control. "You're safe, we can fix this." She reassured, wiping the sweat from Sara's forehead. 

Sara's eyes met Kendra's and she couldn't help but gasp. Beneath the layers of pain and determination to fight off the injury, Sara's expression was pure shock. As though she couldn't believe it had actually happened.

-

The water had been freezing, but he dove in anyway, chasing after the cloud of gold that sunk further and further away from him. The sharp shock of the water made his body protest with every pull of his arms, but he refused to give up. Every time his brain groaned for air and warmth (despite popular opinion, he preferred the cold but wasn't immune to it) he saw the red stain spreading across the white of her suit and redoubled his efforts. 

He caught up to her and hooked his arms around her body, tugging against the current to get them both up to the surface. Coughing as he broke through the water, he gasped in lungfuls of air as he dragged her scarily still body onto the river bank. He dropped her without grace, wincing as he did, falling to his knees and reaching for her neck to feel her pulse.

It was faint but it was there and he choked out a sigh of relief. A second later she was heaving and spluttering beside him, her eyes squinting through the salt water against the sun.

With a jolt he realised that she was looking at him, right at his face, for the first time since he had died. 

"Death didn't feel like this last time." Her voice was raspy and low from her coughing.

Leonard smirked tiredly at her, overwhelmed that after catching fleeting glimpses of her and the team, he actually had the opportunity to speak to someone. 

"Yeah, I've got a bone to pick with you," he drawled. "I think you missed a few minor details when your recounted your death to me." He glanced away from her, out to sea to give himself a moment to gather his thoughts. "Besides, I thought one death by drowning was enough for one lifetime."

Sara stared up at him, obviously addled from the near death experience, light headed from the lack of oxygen. Her eyes fluttered against the brightness of day and slowly closed, her head rolling to the side as the muscles of her neck as she started to sink back into unconsciousness. 

"Sara!" Jax's voice filtered from the sky and before Leonard knew it, he had slipped back into the darkness.

-

Firestorm lit up their hands and held them over Sara in an attempt to warm her up.

"Careful Jefferson!" Stein cautioned as Sara bolted upright, her hands grabbing wildly at Jax who split almost violently from Martin in an attempt to stop her burning her skin at the touch. 

"Where is he?" She demanded, looking between the two of them. "Where'd he go?"

"Miss Lance," Stein's voice was obviously trying to be soothing, but was still tinged with a hint of condescension. "You must rest. You nearly drowned and your body needs time to recover."

The rest of the team had caught up by this point, alerted by Jax's earlier shout. Kendra had dropped behind Sara to held support her as she tried to stay sitting up, her body tired and weak from almost drowning. 

Sara ignored them all and stared at Jax desperately. "It was Leonard. I saw him. He was here. He saved me." 

Her words were met with silence. Her gaze flicked to each of her teammates' faces, an array of sympathy and disbelief displayed across them.

She looked at Mick last of all. 

"It was him, Mick." She directed her words straight at him, eyes pleading with him to believe her.

Mick's expression was stony. "Leonard is dead." He said shortly before shouldering his heat gun and turning to walk away.

Sara sagged back against Kendra, Jax taking some of her weight as they lifted her to her feet to try help her back to the Waverider, starting to disbelieve her own mind. 

"How did I get out of the water?" She whispered, mostly to herself, but Kendra picked up on it. 

"If anything, I'm the last person to believe that death is permanent." She answered, then bit her lip, battling with her own mind for a moment. "I don't know, Sara. Maybe you're just a stronger swimmer than you thought." 

Sara turned her aching head to look back at the icy water that had almost claimed her again. "Maybe..." Maybe not.

-

A pulled fire alarm gave them the distraction needed to run out of a high school Savage was using as an experiment to brainwash students to falling in line with him. A picked lock allowed Sara and Mick to take a prized artifact from a display without being caught by the guards. A well aimed punch knocked the minion out who was stationed by Laurel Lance's grave, waiting for Sara to come pay her respects to attack. 

Sometimes he physically got involved in their fight. Amongst the confusion, no one would notice an extra body slip in and lift the gun that was about to be pointed at Sara's heart. Once, the closest he had been to her since he saved her from drowning, he even grabbed her wrist and pulled her away from a corner that had been the hiding place of a soldier, crossbow ready to fire at whoever came in his path. Sara had turned to see who had grabbed her, but Leonard was back in the darkness before she had a chance to look at him. 

Other times it was a case of making sure the exit was clear, an alarm system turned off here, a guard unconscious there. Since his refusal to commit to his new found status of saviour had led to Sara being stabbed (one mission had involved infiltrating a party of a college kid who would grow up to be Savage's right hand man in 2112 and the crop top she had worn had ridden up and exposed the silvery scar on her ribs. He'd caught a glance just before clocking the security guard muttering into his comms unit about intruders and decided that dealing with that dick and been the more pressing matter.) he didn't doubt or try to worm his way out of the situation. 

God, was this what a hero was like? Seemed like a lot of effort.

There had been a mission that was going very South, very quickly in Copenhagen. The showdown between his team and Savage's men was happening in an abandoned matchstick factory. A line of crates were all that separated them as the team ran for the Waverider, mission abandoned as they realised how many men Savage had brought onboard with this particular scheme.

The men were going to catch up if he didn't do something. Grabbing one of the boxes of matches lying around the abandoned building, he had struck up several and threw them towards the line of crates that were the only obstacle for Savage's men. The fire flared up as wooden boxes full of matches caught on, creating a wall of fire that stopped them in their tracks, giving everyone the time they needed to run to the Waverider.

-

Mick had turned round with glee in his eyes at the sight of the flames licking up the factory walls. He turned his head to the start of the seemingly magical fire and saw a figure smirking at the barrier they must have created. A familiar figure. 

Mick did a double take before Ray was grabbing his arm and yanking him away from the building. As they settled into their seats on the Waverider, he caught sight of Sara, her face pulled into the drawn frown she always wore when she thought no one was looking, ever since the incident with the river. 

Mick took a deep breath. 

-

"Sara?"

"Hmm?"

"I saw him." 

Sara shot up from her chair in the kitchen. "You did?"

Mick nodded solemnly. "Copenhagen. He was the one who started the fire." 

Sara swallowed heavily. "Okay. So he's... Alive? I don't understand what's happened..."

Mick frowned at the counter top, thinking hard before his brow smoothed out. 

"Gideon," he barked. "What side effects are there to being in close proximity to the time stream when it goes boom?"

"The chances of surviving such an event are-"

"Humour me." Mick smirked at Sara, who still looked a little unsure of where this was going. 

"It is possible that being in close range of the time stream when it collapses could cause the human DNA to splinter across reality." Gideon recited. 

"Huh." Rory's eyes lit up as he turned to Sara with the start of a triumphant grin.

"So... Leonard could have, theoretically speaking, survived the explosion, somehow, and is now... What, floating around in time?" Sara guessed, trying to keep up with the advanced knowledge of the AI and the former bounty hunter and slowly adding up what they were saying. 

"That is a potential outcome, correct Miss Lance. But as I tried to say the chances of it occurring are-"

"Not interested." Mick cut in.

"But... Why would Leonard only show up when we're in danger? Why isn't he just appearing to us now or to the others?" Sara questioned, wanting to believe the logic before her but not getting her hopes up before the facts were straightened out. 

"There is a possibility that as Mr Snart's DNA fractured he had the remains of Miss Lance's DNA on him and therefore the time stream keeps drawing them together accidentally as it has not realised the two are separate." Gideon suggested, seeming to have given up warning the two that the likelihood of Leonard's survival was very slim.

Mick's eyes narrowed. "Why would Snart have Birdy's DNA on him?"

"Miss Lance often dreams of the moment before Mr Snart's death and the k-"

"Gideon, is there a way we could use my DNA to pull Leonard out of the time stream? If it's drawn to me, could we, I don't know, amplify that to attract it then have some sort of device to reach through and get him out of there?" Sara worried her bottom lip with her teeth, praying that her vague plan might be something they could work on.

The AI was silent for a moment. "If my calculations are correct and we return to the site where the DNA fractured, with the help of Mr Stein and Dr Palmer's minds with Mr Jefferson's engineering skills, I predict an 83% success rate." 

Sara's heart felt like it was about to beat out of her chest. "We need to round everyone up and set a course for the Vanishing Point right now." Mick nodded in immediate agreement and they stalked out of the kitchen towards the central hub of the ship in determined silence. Until-

"So. You made out with my partner, huh?"

"Not the time, Mick."

-

Memories filtering past. Mick with the parts of the fire gun spread around him as he cleaned with a care he afforded only to his machine. Stein drawing intense calculations, scrawling over a sheet of paper spread over the Waverider's console. 

Leonard accepted the memories now. Encouraged them. Maybe if he couldn't live his life properly anymore, he could relive the one he used to have, whether good or bad.

Baby Lisa swaddled in a pale pink blanket in his mother's arms when she was brought home for the first time. The Flash and his little pal brandishing some sort of put together weapon at him. Waiting outside the fence of juvie for Mick to be released. Seeing his younger self scared and alone and so very small. Sara's face rising to meet his, her hand clutching his arm as she pressed her lips firmly, a little messily, against his. Her tearful but meaningful expression as she pulled away. Her eyes never leaving his as she stepped back to reach for Mick. Thenstraightening back up. Giving him a smirk. Taking a step back towards him. Reaching a hand out.

Sara's fingers curling around his own. 

Wait. What? He'd never felt a memory before. As far as he knew, he had no body to feel with whenever he was stuck in this limbo zone between saving Sara.

Sara's eyes twinkled with that delightful mixture of mischief, fondness and determination she got whenever she was about to challenge him. Her hand wrapped tighter around his and she gave a strong tug that had him barrelling towards her, stepping, stumbling, through the mist of the memories, through the darkness, into the light. 

He stumbled to a stop a hair's breadth away from her. He could feel her breath on his face, smell the cleanness of her hair. This wasn't a memory. This was happening.

Sara smiled.

"Come on, crook. How about I save you this time?" 

Fin.


End file.
